Cardiac Injury and Microvascular Ischemia in Sickle Cell Disease

Introduction: Myocardial ischemic injury remains an under recognized problem in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD), for which the exact prevalence remains undefined. SCD patients are known to have microvascular disease, impaired myocardial perfusion reserve and lack of typical epicardial vessel involvement based on prior data. Previous study at our institution has demonstrated that 3/22(13%) patients with clinically stable sickle cell disease had impaired myocardial perfusion reserve but no epicardial coronary artery disease. In this study, we will aim to learn prevalence of cardiac injury and microvascular ischemic disease. We will also evaluate for impact of these findings on overall survival (OS) of SCD patients.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients with SCD seen at OSU Wexner Medical Center from July 2005 to July 2015 to identify patients who had elevated troponin-I level or cardiac MRI performed for chest pain. Clinical and laboratory data around the time of cardiac MRI and troponin elevation was collected. Abnormal MRI was defined in three ways: 1) Microvascular disease was defined by presence of subendocardial or myocardial perfusion defects and myocardial scarring. 2) Myocardial disease otherwise includes other findings suggestive but not specific for myocardial ischemia including left ventricular dysfunction, midmyocardial fibrosis, inflammation and regional wall motion abnormalities. 3) Abnormal MRI includes patients described in either 1) or 2). Kaplan-Meier (KM) method was used to evaluate the impact of microvascular disease defined in all 3 ways on OS. Proportional hazards model was fit to estimate the association between troponin elevation and OS, where troponin elevation was treated as a time-dependent variable and OS was measured from time of birth.

Results: Sixty-nine (51% male; genotype Hb SS 75%, SC 16%, and Sβ-thal 9%) of 373 SCD patients had either abnormal troponin and/or had cardiac MRI done. Median age was 34 years (range 19-67 years). Of 238 patients who had troponin-I measured over this period, 18 % (n=42) had elevated troponin. 24 of 47 patients with cardiac MRI showed abnormalities described above specific for microvascular disease (n=14, 30%) and myocardial disease otherwise (n=10, 21%). We identified 22 patients with troponin measurement within 30 days before cardiac MRI. Elevated troponin levels predicted MRI abnormalities with sensitivity of 71% (95% confidence interval (CI) 42-92%) and specificity of 63% (95% CI 24-91%). The degree of troponin elevation did not correlate with the MRI abnormality. Hazard ratio of death in patients with elevated troponin was 5.1 (95% CI 2.7-9.6; p<0.0001). While the KM survival curves show lower OS in patients in abnormal MRI (p=0.74) and microvascular disease (p=0.42; Figure 1) group compared with normal MRI, the comparisons were not statistically significant. There was no difference in OS for patients with nonspecific myocardial disease findings (p=0.59).

Conclusion: Over a 10-year period, the prevalence of cardiac injury as measured by elevated troponin was 18% (42/238) in patients with atypical chest pain. Among 47 patients who had cardiac MRI performed, 51% were abnormal with 30% having findings specific for microvascular cardiac disease. Troponin elevation appears to significantly increase the risk of all-cause mortality. Patient with microvascular and myocardial ischemic disease tend to have lower OS, but it did not reach statistical significance. This could be one of the potential contributing factors to high early mortality and sudden deaths in SCD patients. Further studies will be needed to elaborate on disease modifying interventions that impact survival in these patients.

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